iPad Users More Likely to Cut Pay TV: Survey

A new survey from The Diffusion Group (TDG) finds that iPad owners or those planning to purchase one in the new few months are significantly more likely than average adult broadband users to either downgrade or cancel their pay TV services.

Over one-third (33.9%) of iPad owners were to varying degrees likely to cancel their pay TV service in the next six months, while 12.9% of the device owners were "highly likely" to cut the cord.

By way of contrast, about 6.4% of people planning to buy iPads -- a group TDG calls "the Intenders -- and only 4.3% of all adult broadband users claimed they were highly likely to cut the cord.

The survey also found 27.4% of iPad owners and 14.2% of the so-called intenders indicated that they were "highly likely" to downgrade their pay TV services in the next six months. Only 10% of the all adult broadband users said they were highly likely to downgrade.

"Despite the fact that cord-cutting remains more widely discussed than carried out, forward-looking research continue to accumulate in support of the hypothesis that specific groups of consumers are quickly warming to the idea," noted TDG founding partner and director of research Michael Greeson in announcing the results. "Certainly this applies to iPad owners and Intenders."

Greeson also said that major broadcasters and cable networks might view the results as a providing a rational for restricting their online offerings and iPad apps so that viewers are motivated to maintain existing pay TV relationships.

Conversely, content creators looking to expand their over the top efforts might view the results as evidence of demand for iPad delivered content. Based on TDG research, Greeson suggested that these content creators focus their over-the-top efforts on specific groups like iPad owners who seem more likely to discard their incumbent multichannel providers.